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Cletus Kasady (Earth-616)
| CurrentAlias = Carnage | Quotation = We're gonna paint the whole damn world red! | Speaker = Carnage | QuoteSource = Superior Carnage Annual Vol 1 1 | EditorialNames = Formerly Minimum Carnage, Superior Carnage, Maximum Carnage | Aliases = Mass Carnage, 999th, Venom named the Carnage Symbiote as the 999th symbiote in their lineage, making him the 998th, and Toxin the 1000th Carnage-Man, Your Friendly Neighborhood Carnage, Amazing Carnage | Identity = Public | Affiliation = Formerly , partner of Shriek, , partner of Venom | Relatives = Unnamed grandmother (deceased); Unnamed father (deceased); Unnamed mother (deceased); ---- Symbiotes' relatives Carnage (current symbiote); Venom ("father"); Anti-Venom ("uncle", deceased), Shriek ("wife"); Agony, Phage, Riot ("brothers"); Lasher, ("sister"), Carrion, Demogoblin, Doppelganger ("sons"); Toxin ("son") ; Scorn ("daughter"); Scream ("sister", deceased); Hybrid ("brother", deceased) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Mobile | Gender = Male | Height = 6'1" | Height2 = , variable with symbiote | Weight = 190 lbs | Weight2 = , variable with symbiote | Eyes = Green | Eyes2 = ; White with symbioteCategory:White Eyes | Hair = Red | Hair2 = ; None with symbioteCategory:No Hair | UnusualFeatures = Claws, fangs and a prehensile tongue while bonded with the symbiote. Cletus has had his legs replaced with cybernetic versions due to his encounter with Sentry. | CharRef = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Mass Murderer, Criminal, former vigilante | Education = | Origin = Human, bonded with the offspring of Venom while Eddie Brock was in prison with him | PlaceOfBirth = Brooklyn, New York | PlaceOfDeath = | Creators = David Michelinie; Erik Larsen | First = Category:Copper-Age Characters | Death = | HistoryText = Cletus Kasady had a troubled childhood. He killed his grandmother by pushing her down a flight of stairs, and tortured his mother's dog. Afterward, his father apparently killed his mother, and received no defense from Kasady during his trial. As an orphan, Kasady was sent to the St. Estes Home for Boys, where his antisocial behavior made him the target of abuse from both the other orphans and the staff. Kasady gained revenge by murdering the disciplinarian administration, pushing Manny Calderon, a girl who refused a date with him, in front of a bus and burning down the orphanage. Uknown to Kasady, however, Manny survived the massacre and would latter join the Army. .]] Homicidal maniac Cletus Kasady was serving eleven consecutive prison terms when an opportunity for early parole presented itself in the form of his new cell mate: Eddie Brock, human host to a symbiotic costume once worn by Peter Parker. Monster and man had merged to become the villainous Venom, but Brock was separated from the alien during a battle with the web-slinger. While Brock waited for the symbiote to spring him from prison, Kasady entertained him with his homicidal philosophy on life: Even the average person can commit murder, if only he has the courage. As anticipated, the Venom symbiote attempted to free Brock by inciting a destructive jailbreak. Unknown to its human host, the alien was pregnant. It gave birth during the disastrous rescue. Left behind in the midst of the riot that ensued, the symbiote's spawn bonded with Kasady. Empowered far beyond the levels of Spider-Man and Venom, he made good his escape - intent on using his new-found power to disseminate his lethal doctrine and as Carnage, his first victim Gunther Stein was chosen from a Telephone book. Embarking on a citywide killing spree, Carnage was confronted by Spider-Man. However, the wall-crawler's amazing arachnid-like abilities were insufficient to subdue the thrice-strong serial killer. Spider-Man was forced to enlist the aid of the Fantastic Four, the greatest team of superhuman adventurers ever assembled. He also sought the assistance of another, more dangerous ally: Venom, his hated foe. But the villain despised its offspring even more, and agreed to help. Facing the combined might of Spider-Man, Venom and the Fantastic Four, Carnage was captured and imprisoned at the Ravencroft Asylum. Perhaps due in part to his insanity, Carnage's strength and abilities far exceed those of his predecessors, Venom and Spider-Man. Once, he even dispatched his symbiote through a phone line by reducing the alien to its cellular level. When an army of symbiotes invaded Earth, Carnage learned to feed on other aliens to increase his own mass. However formidable, almost all his bloodthirsty endeavors have culminated with his return to the Ravencroft Asylum, where the search continues for a cure to his homicidal tendencies. .]] After a battle with Venom, Carnage, was about to give birth to a another symbiote, he was threatened by its existence and attempted to destroy it. However, Venom wanted to raise and train the new symbiote as an ally and partner. Weakened by the actual birthing, Carnage was unable to kill the newborn, supplanting it in Patrick Mulligan, a New York city cop. Venom named the new symbiote Toxin, after himself. Fearing that Toxin would grow to become someone like Spider-Man, Venom made a temporary alliance with Carnage to kill his "grandson", but in the end they were defeated by the combined efforts of Spider-Man, Toxin and Black Cat. Carnage met his fate when the Sentry ripped Carnage in half and flung him into low Earth orbit. According to Iron Man's computer, Kasady may not have been inside the symbiote when the Sentry ripped it apart. Return However, it was later discovered that Kasady was in fact within the symbiote when the incident occurred, but both survived it because the symbiote put them into a dormant state. Orbiting Earth, Carnage's body crashed into a satellite and was found by Michael Hall, the satellite's owner and a competitor of Tony Stark, who then proceeded to retrieve it from space. Hall then separated Kasady from the symbiote and, using its properties, created prosthetic limbs and exo-suits which responded in the same ways as a symbiote. Dr. Tanis Nieves was outfitted with one of these prosthetic arms after she was caught in an attack by Doppelganger. When near the red symbiote, her arm went wild and forced her to kill several scientists before she was forcefully bonded to it, becoming the new Carnage. After the symbiote used Tanis to break into a Hall Corporation facility, it left her behind and rebonded with Kasady, who was kept locked there after his body was repaired by Hall's prosthetic. Carnage battled Iron Man and Spider-Man upgraded with the "symbiotes" of Hall's super-guards. Meanwhile, Nieves' prothesis resulted to be a new spawn of Carnage, which turned her into a new symbiote called Scorn. Scorn obligated Shriek to use her sonic attack to debilitate Carnage, who was revealed to be a construct made of Hall's super-guards. The real Carnage had escaped with Doppelganger. Cletus arrived to Doverton, Colorado and took over their population, controlling them with copies of his symbiote, proclaiming this city the new capital of a new symbiote sovereign state. Part of the Avengers, along with the Thing, arrived to stop him, but were possessed by the symbiote's copies, letting Spider-Man the only hero standing. Spidey managed to get out from there with the help of the resistance of non-infected citizens. When the Mercury Team, along with Scorn, attacked the zone in search of Carnage, Spider-Man and the resistance appeared to help them. Venom appeared just in time to save Spider-Man's life from Cletus, but when Scorn used a sonic weapon to sever the bond between Cletus and Carnage, she also affected Venom. Leaving Cletus against an invalid Flash Thompson, the two rogues symbiotes started fighting using animals. The Avengers and Scorn managed to weak Carnage's, while a gorilla with Venom's took it back to Flash, when both of them were fighting, Cletus' robotic legs being broken in the middle of it. The Carnage symbiote was captured by Scorn, while Cletus was taken into custody in a Quinjet. Minimum Carnage and Scarlet Spider.]] He was put into custody in the Thunderbolts Mountain until he was contacted by beings of the Microverse, who managed to see inside his mind and offer him a treat, they would give him the Microverse to get a whole new universe to kill in in exchange of his service for these beings. He managed to use the traces of the symbiote in his DNA to fortify it and become Carnage once more, escaping to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Texas, and using a new technology to escape to the Microverse, even after Scarlet Spider tried to stop him. He betrayed his allies, who wanted to bring him to their master, Marquis Radu, in order to create a symbiotic army, and killed most of them while Venom and Scarlet Spider followed him to the Microverse. After dealing with the Scarlet Spider, Carnage was taken prisoner along with Venom, who was captured along his allies, the Enigma Force, in another place, by Marquis Radu's army. The symbiotes of Venom and Carnage were replicated to create the powerful army which would destroy the Microverse. Cletus managed to take control over the symbiotic army and used it to escape to the regular universe, where he was finally defeated by the combined efforts of Venom and Scarlet Spider, who used a special weapon given to them by the Enigma Force. After being stung by the Scarlet Spider, Cletus cured his wounds, but was left in a catatonic state, meaning that the symbiote was now in full control of his body, although it was put into custody once more and sedated. member, Klaw.]] Superior Carnage Carnage was freed from imprisonment by The Wizard, who, still thinking Cletus was in control of the symbiote, wanted to make him part of his newest Frightful Four. However, Carnage was unaffected by The Wizard's powers and attacked him. Before Carnage was able to finish him off The Klaw was able to stop Carnage and save The Wizard. After realizing that Carnage could not be affected by his powers, and could not be separated from his host by traditional means since the Symbiote was embedded in Cletus' blood, the Wizard began transferring Carnage to a new host by transfusing Cletus' blood into Karl Malus. Later, Wizard blew up his secret base, with Kasady still inside, apparently killed. However, Cletus survived the explosion, with some major skin burns, and was recovered by Spider-Man's Spiderlings. When the Carnage symbiote bonded to the Wizard, Otto decided he could use the symbiote's preference for Cletus in order to make it abandon the Wizard, by taking Kasady to the scene, and contain the alien before it could merge with its original host. However, the mission failed, and Cletus became Carnage once more as the Spiderlings failed to contain the symbiote. Carnage rampaged through the scene until Klaw, whose sonic body had been dispersed, managed to redirect lightning to Carnage and separate him from Kasady. Both beings were taken separately to custody. Unknown to Spider-Man, the symbiote's rebonding with Kasady fixed the villain's brain, who was now no longer lobotomized. Cletus became a model prisoner, for which he was transferred to Kramer Penitentiary. He was fatally wounded by a fellow inmate, who was paid by Dr. Jenner, Cletus' psychologist who wanted to become Carnage's new host. Kasady was suffocated to death with a pillow by Jenner in Kramer's infirmary. When the Carnage symbiote escaped containment and returned to Cletus, it refused Jenner's offer to become its new host, and bonded and reanimated Cletus, becoming Carnage once more and killing the entire staff and prisoners to send the message to the world that "Carnage was back." .]] Cletus decided to go 'back to basics' and went on a seemingly random killing spree with no reason or patterns to his victims. However Deadpool was able to find a pattern in Carnage's madness and continually found him much to Cletus's frustration. Playing mind games with Carnage, Deadpool was able to put doubt in Cletus in the existence of chaos and that all his actions were being controlled by an outside force. This came to a head when Carnage almost killed Shriek, and he placed himself in an unlocked jail cell to wait until his mind was clear of doubt again. AXIS When the Red Onslaught was unleashed, Magneto recruited numerous villains to stop the madman's Stark Sentinels. He approached Carnage in his self-confinement, and convinced Cletus to join him as there would be nothing more chaotic than him saving the world. Noticing Deadpool was part of Magneto's team, Carnage joined intending to exact revenge, but following the inversion spell which changed the moral axis of those in the island, they parted amicably. After the inversion, Cletus returned to New York, stopping a robbery and apprehending the Squid with zero fatalities. Even though the spell brought out a desire to do good, his sociopath tendencies made it hard for him to behave like a hero, causing him to brutalize criminals and still be treated as a villain. After saving reporter Alice Gleason from a new Sin-Eater, whom Kasady seemingly killed, he kidnapped her to teach him how to be a real hero. Alice agreed to help him be good as long as he promised not to hurt her, which he accepted. They headed to a church for Cletus to confess his sins but he attacked a tomb digger thinking he was robbing from the graves. Alice instead recorded his confession in her phone and secretly sent it to her boss. He later stopped a bank robbery but tried to burn the bank to stop future robberies. He fled as the police arrived but Alice fell and was kidnapped by the Sin-Eater while Carnage was surrounded by the police. Despite being shot down by two missiles, Carnage located the Sin Eater and rescued Alice. Sin Eater feed on Carnage's sins, growing into a giant while Cletus feels the burden on his conscience being relieved. Carnage defeated him by overloading him with a last sin: that he loved all the destruction he caused, and the Sin Eater dwindles into a shriveled corpse that disintegrates. Feeling reborn, Carnage thanks the Sin Eater's corpse for absolving his sins before having his head shot off by Alice. Regenerating, Carnage asked why she betrayed him, and Alice admitted that she had lied to him about being a good person and had only been using him for personal gain, screaming at the newly arrived police to open fire. Carnage misinterpreted her betrayal as a warning that falling in love was dangerous, and reaffirmed his desire to become a superhero while escaping. .]] Cletus was later reunited with the other inverted villains to form the Astonishing Avengers in order to stop the inverted heroes. Before the later-known "Battle of Manhattan," Carnage acted as the face of the Astonishing Avengers, dubbing them the "Axis of Evil", and had them take all of the blame for the actions of the inverted heroes in order to protect the reputations of the X-Men, Avengers, and Inhumans in the aftermath at the expense of the newly achieved heroic reputations of himself and Hobgoblin. The Astonishing Avengers fought the inverted X-Men in Manhattan, who were trying to detonate a gene bomb which would've killed everyone in the planet who wasn't a mutant. As the time was running out and there were no options left, while the Avengers were distracting the X-Men, Carnage decided to sacrifice himself and use the symbiote to wrap around the bomb and contain the explosion, seemingly killing him. Before his death, Cletus asked Spider-Man to build an extravagant memorial for him. His death was seemingly confirmed when Wasp found the remains of the Carnage symbiote around the area where the bomb had been. After Kasady's apparent death and in the aftermath of the battle itself, Peter Parker was seen building the memorial as he had promised. Post-AXIS However, Cletus was somehow able to cheat death again, though he lost the lower half of his body in the process, and went to Carefree, Arizona, to pay a visit to a new friend he made during the time he was inverted, a friend he was willing to "help", Sam Alexander aka Nova. Cletus left a message signaling his return in the form of murdering a random bystander who he had asked where to find the boy as proof that he was reverted to his natural moral axis. After learning that Sam's mother worked at a local diner, Cletus took her hostage there in order to get his attention, but, tired of waiting, Cletus decided to kill her. Nova arrived before he could do so and took him away from the diner to an empty area in order not to hurt anyone. While fighting, Nova tried to convince him that he wasn't Sam Alexander, but the maniac didn't believe him. After being wounded by the Nova Force, Cletus fled to let his symbiote heal him as the police arrived. In the next day, already healed from his burns, Cletus attacked Sam again, this time at his school. While attacking Sam, Carnage saw Nova flying around the area, thus making it impossible for the boy to be Nova (unbeknownst to him, that was Sam's mother wearing his helmet). Enraged, Carnage followed the false Nova, but lost sight of her. He then started to attack innocent people to try and get Nova's attention, which he got. A new battle ensued between them. Carnage was taken by Nova to the sky and then punched into the parking lot below, the impact setting off the cars' alarms, dizzying Cletus and his symbiote. Cletus was then threw by Nova, who had already realized Carnage's weakness to high sounds, into an Anthrax (a heavy metal band which Cletus was a fan of) show nearby. As the symbiote screamed in pain, Cletus fled to the road, but was attacked by Nova again. He threw a car at Nova, who caught it midair, and took advantage of it to punch him. As he was about to finish his opponent off, Carnage was hit by a truck. He was then tied in metal plates by Nova, and left by his symbiote as he revealed he wanted to kill Nova because he wanted to erase any memory of his good deeds from the time he had his moral axis inverted from anyone who remembered it. He was left by Sam in Ryker's Island. Unfinished Business Having escaped from the Rykers, Carnage began a new killing spree through the United States. Upon reaching rural Minnesota, Cletus was caught by surprise when he found out that Manuela Calderon survived his first confirmed mass murder at St. Este's School for Boys through the news. Enraged, Cletus set his course to Grey Ridge Mine, where Manny worked as director of security for Grey Ridge Investments, unknowing that it was a trap set by the FBI agent Claire Dixon. After making his way through guards to Calderon, Carnage was bombarded by sonic cannons that weakened him. However, the cannons shook through the backfill over an old drift tunnel and the ground swallowed Carnage and several agents. Carnage continued moving through the tunnels, killing the trapped agents and confronting those who had descended to rescue them. Among those agents were Colonel John Jameson and Eddie Brock, who would eventually come to blows with Carnage under their super-powered alter-egos, Man-Wolf and Toxin, respectively. Carnage was eventually approached by Barry Gleason, the managing director of Grey Ridge Investments who plotted against the FBI to use Carnage in a ritual to awake the Elder God Chthon using the Darkhold. Carnage was guided by Gleason to the ancient chamber where the ritual would take place, and the Darkholders attacked him to spill his blood on the Darkhold. However, the nature of Kasady's body being merged with the symbiote allowed him to take control over the cultists. As they left the chamber, they were confronted by Toxin. Carnage and his army of symbiotes enganged Brock in combat, but Cletus soon shifted his attention at finding the Darkhold, hoping to use it to gain more power. As the mine collapsed due to sonic cannons in a failed attempt to bury Carnage, Cletus escaped and eventually caught up with Barry Gleason, who had escaped with the Darkhold. | Powers = The symbiote of which Cletus Kasady is host provides him with numerous spider-like powers. Even without the symbiote, Cletus is still considered very dangerous, as his Antisocial Personality Disorder and obsession with chaos make him impossible to reason with and he has no trouble with killing with no motive. Red Symbiotic Costume: Kasady possesses various superhuman attributes as a result of bonding with the Carnage symbiote, which covers his body in red and black biomass. Most of his powers are similar to those possessed by Spider-Man and Venom, although he possesses several unique abilities. For example he can see out of every bit of his symbiote. *'Superhuman Strength:' Carnage is superhumanly strong. He has shown himself to be stronger than Spider-Man and Venom combined and can lift about 80 tons; this is not his true limit as his strength increases with his size and variable muscle mass. Kasady himself, however has the strength of a regular human being. *'Superhuman Speed:' Carnage can run and move at speeds superior to those of any normal human being. *'Superhuman Stamina:' Kasady's musculature generates considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. He can physically exert himself at peak capacity for about 24 hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in his bloodstream begins to impair his function. *'Superhuman Agility:' Kasady's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. *'Superhuman Reflexes:' Kasady's reflexes are similarly enhanced and are superior to those of the finest human athlete, and even superior to those of Spider-Man. *'Superhuman Durability:' The tissue the symbiote is composed of renders Kasady's body much harder and more resistant to physical injury than the body of an ordinary human. Kasady can withstand high caliber bullets, great impact forces, powerful energy blasts, and falls from great heights without sustaining significant physical injury. *'Regenerative Healing Factor:' Despite this, however, it is possible to injure him. Kasady is able to rapidly regenerate damaged bodily tissues much faster and more extensively than an ordinary human. It isn't known, however, if he can fully regenerate severed limbs or missing internal organs, although he appears to have regrown the lower half of his body. In the Microverse, Carnage was able to regrow his entire body from his severed head after being decapitated by Venom, and regrow his head completely in a matter of seconds after having it blown off by Alice Gleason. Kasady is also immune to the effects of all Earthly diseases and infections as long as he remains bonded with the symbiote. *'Wall Crawling:' Much like Spider-Man, Kasady has the ability to cling to virtually any surface. He can rapidly crawl, walk, or run across even slickened surfaces. *'Webbing:' Kasady can project a powerful, organic web-like substance similar to the webbing Spider-Man has. He typically uses this webbing to swing from building to building or as a means of immobilizing someone. The webbing is exceptionally strong, much more so for even the finest human athlete to break. *'Camouflage Capabilities:' The symbiote possesses limited shape-shifting abilities in the sense that it can immediately change itself to appear as any type of clothing or garment that Kasady wishes. *'Constituent Matter Generation:' Kasady can generate tentacle-like appendages from various parts of his body, which he often uses either in combat situations or to restrain someone. *'Constituent-Matter Manipulation:' Kasady can morph sections of his body, such as his hands or feet, into bladed weaponry such as spikes, blades, or axes. Kasady can also detach these bladed weaponry if he chooses to. For example, he often forms spikes that he expels from his body. The weaponry, however, disintegrates after being separated from his body after a period of about 30 seconds. *'Immunity to Spider-Man's Spider-Sense:' Due to the Carnage symbiote being a child of the Venom symbiote, Carnage can't be detected by Spider-Man's Spider-Sense. Darkhold Augmentation: After his symbiote-infused blood came into contact with the Darkhold, Carnage regained the ability to spread his symbiote to other people and control them. He additionally lost his vulnerability to sonic attacks and gained the ability to sense the eldritch tome's location. | Weaknesses = Sonic and Heat: The Carnage symbiote, like all others of its kind, is extremely vulnerable to heat and sonic based attacks. They can cause the symbiote physical pain and discomfort, where as "more powerful" attacks might be completely ineffective. After being empowered by the Darkhold, Carnage is no longer vulnerable to sonic attacks, though it is unknown if he also lost his weakness towards heat. Insanity: Even without the symbiote, Cletus is a diagnosed psychopath, and is obsessed with chaos. His mental pathologies can also be exploited, allowing people to manipulate his actions. | Abilities = Though he has had no formal training, the natural abilities granted to Kasady by the symbiote makes him a formidable combatant. | Strength = Carnage's strength is greater than Venom and Spider-Man combined. Carnage is able to press lift up to 80 tons, this is not his true limit as his strength increases with his size and variable muscle mass. | Equipment = * Carnage Symbiote. | Transportation = * Web-slinging | Weapons = * Carnage has fangs and claws courtesy of the symbiote, and can shape his limbs into various weapons. | Notes = | Trivia = * Kasady had a teddy bear named Binky in his orphanage. He went back for Binky after he escaped Riker's. * Cletus considers the Carnage symbiote to be female. * Cletus' favorite song is "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. * Cletus is fan of the thrash metal group Anthrax, the Symbiote often making him listen to it with headphones. * Cletus was revealed to have terminal stomach cancer in the issue where the symbiote bonded to the Silver Surfer, though it hasn't come up since. * Despite his prosthetic legs being destroyed in , and him being shown with flesh-and-blood legs in the Superior Carnage and Deadpool vs. Carnage miniseries, Cletus inexplicably has robotic legs in Nova Vol 5. * People Cletus has killed include: ** His Grandmother ** The Orphanage Administrator ** A girl that wouldn't date him ** Gunther Stein ** Riker's Guard ** Officer ** Jerry and Celia Tandy along with their three young children ** A desk clerk and guard ** Robert Sutcliff's Elite Security Team ** Robert Sutcliff's Helicopter pilot ** Robert Sutcliff ** One of the staff members of Headbanger's Heaven ** A singer at Headbanger's Heaven ** A bunch of subway passengers ** A Ravencroft guard ** Dr. Jenner ** The entire staff and prisoners of Kramer Penitentiary ** Hundreds of unknown innocent people * Carnage is the main villian on 2002 ' Universal Hallowen Horror Nights ', which was based on Maximum Carnage, however, Cletus managed to kill every hero who went after him (like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America) and with the help of other villains, took over the world. *The current symbiote that possesses Cletus' body is not the original Carnage symbiote, and is another red coloured symbiote he found while in the Negative Zone. More recent material, such as Venom vs. Carnage and Superior Carnage, ignores this and treats the two as one and the same. Recommended Readings * Maximum Carnage * Carnage, U.S.A. | Links = * Carnage Rulz-A page of the Marvel World Order site, (informative though difficult to read) * Brief bio at Insania 1998 * Brief bio at Spiderfan.org }} Category:Atheist Characters Category:Web-Slinging Category:Superhuman Stamina Category:Fire Weakness Category:Sonic Weakness Category:Insanity Category:Sociopaths Category:Schizophrenia Category:Cannibals Category:Symbiotes-possessed Category:Wallcrawling Category:Shapeshifters Category:Leaping Category:Superhuman (75-100 ton) Strength Category:Regeneration Category:Formerly Deceased Category:Dating Characters Category:Stomach Cancer